A Foundation for the Future.

The National Recreation and Park Association has been the principal advocate for public recreation and parks in American cities. Its confident leadership in promoting landscaped parks, playgrounds, and sports and cultural programs has strengthened the fabric of American life.

The public recreation and park movement is a direct outgrowth of industrializing, urbanizing America of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The rise of the city provided the seeds of many changes and set the stage for the early reform movement. Among the products of the intervening 100 years has been the development of comprehensive and sophisticated systems of public parks and recreation in most communities throughout the United States.

At the beginning of this century, only one county, Essex County in New Jersey, had created a park system. Several hundred cities had moved toward the provision of public parks, but these parks, often inaccessible to many residents, had been predominantly landscape parks whose administrators had frowned upon the idea of active games and sports. A small number of supervised playgrounds, generally restricted to summer use, had begun to take shape in 14 cities by 1900, but no city had yet established a recreation department (Play for America, NRPA).

The pioneering work of the National Recreation and Park Association and its predecessor organizations has laid a strong foundation for the future. NRPA has been the principal advocate for public recreation and parks in American cities. Its confident leadership in promoting landscaped parks, playgrounds, and sports and cultural programs has strengthened the fabric of American life. Today, more than 4,000 communities have organized public recreation and park departments.

As we approach the year 2000, we must keep in mind four central concepts that have fostered the growth of public recreation and parks over the past century.

1 Promoting the importance of parks and open spaces in creating a livable urban environment.

2 Stressing the need for positive recreation experiences for all citizens, particularly children and youth.

3 Emphasizing the essential role of recreation in improving individual health and well-being.

4 Recognizing the central role that building strong local citizen support has had in developing successful recreation and park programs.

The coming millennium will present extraordinary challenges to communities across the country. Among them are an expanding and more diverse population, increasing social problems, economic pressures, and revolutionary technological changes. The last decade of the 1900s offers a glimpse at some of the challenges ahead.

In 1999, there is a greater demand for park and recreation facilities than ever Before. Federal and state funding sources are no longer at the level they were in the 1970s and '80s. Not only is new land needed but much of the nation's inventory of existing public recreation land and facilities is in need of renovation.

According to a 1992 report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, the nation is neglecting its 19 million young people to such an extent that one-half of them may be irrevocably damaging their chances for productive and healthy futures. According to the council, youth are being abandoned by their government, communities, schools, and parents just when they need guidance and support most desperately.

Health care costs in the United States are rising at an alarming rate, threatening the vitality of the nation's economy. A highly publicized recent report by the U.S. Surgeon General points out the following:

Only about one-half of young people (ages 12-21) regularly participate in vigorous physical activity. One-fourth report no vigorous physical activity. Daffy attendance in physical education classes declined from approximately 42 percent to 25 percent.

About 25 percent of adults report no physical activity at all in their leisure time.

Physical inactivity is more prevalent among women than men, blacks and Hispanics than whites, older than younger adults, and the less affluent than more affluent.

The challenges of the coming century call for a renewed commitment by recreation and park agencies to address the quality-of-life issues of a new era. Bold and imaginative leadership will be required to develop a vision for the future and to forge new partnerships with both the private and nonprofit sectors, which will maximize the use of limited resources.

To quote Chicago planner Daniel Burnham, "Make no little plans."

The future will demand it.

"One of the prices Americans pay for pluralism is the absence of a shared value system. For park and recreation professionals and agencies, the implications of this reality are too complicated to adequately address here. However, it will depend on us, the professionals of the future, to choose to either celebrate the reality of diversity, or simply tolerate it. For those who want to be all they can be, the choice to celebrate will be rewarding. It will require patience, goodwill, commitment, and a willingness to step outside our comfort zones.

Hiring a bilingual staff is only part of the process. Our staff must also be bicultural. To be bilingual is to share a language; to be bicultural is to share a feeling. Remember, people who see other people that look like them enjoy a stronger sense of place. We must endeavor to create places for all."

Charles Jordan
Superintendent
Portland (Ore.) Bureau of Parks

"As we enter the new millennium, I envision parks and recreation departments searching more than ever for outside funding sources. Professionals must take advantage of networking opportunities with major corporations to build stronger relationships in the private sector. Joining forces with a wide variety of private and public agencies must become a priority in the 21st century if parks and recreation departments are to expand and thrive in an ever-changing society.

As we are successful in getting our citizens to see that the benefits are endless, we must not forget that the benefits of establishing partnerships with public and private entities can also be endless."

Darlene Lynam
Director
Lincolnwood (Ill.) Parks and Recreation

"As in the recent past, successful park and recreation agencies will need to become even more resourceful, creative, and entrepreneurial in the 21st century. While preserving the public trust, agencies and organizations must operate administratively as private industry and businesses.

Private funding sources will become even more critical in order to operate cutting-edge services.

Public agencies and nonprofits will become public-private agencies similar to many public institutions of higher education, which receive more private than public funding.

Partnerships will be critical to ensure quality programs teaming with volunteer organizations and community service agencies. Sharing resources (staff, facilities, equipment, and finances) with both private and public agencies will enhance community-wide services. A la big-league sports, successful agencies will partner with corporations to name program sponsorships and opportunities. Finally, park and recreation departments will realize the significance of the employment of development, grant-writing, and fund-raising personnel."

Gary M. Robb
Executive Director
Bradford Woods/National Center on Accessibility (Ind.)

Dr. Hartsoe is the executive director of the National Recreation Foundation.3